While the direct exposure is low, if the Greek debt crisis implodes and spurs a major dislocation in global credit markets, Australia and South Korea’s banks and economies would suffer the most, said Andrew Colquhoun, head of Asia-Pacific sovereign ratings.

“Among the countries in Asia I would regard as relatively more exposed are both Korea and Australia, who have an issue of short-term and long-term external debt of the banking system,” he told Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of a conference in Sydney.

“If the banks found it more difficult to refinance that debt, then there could be repercussions for the economies,” he said, adding “quite a lot” of risk still remains in the process to firm up a second bailout package for Greece.

Australia’s four biggest banks have in recent years leaned heavily on foreign currency borrowing and were among the biggest issuers of debt in the world using their respective governments’ funding guarantees during the financial crisis.

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